P.M. expects liner report by Friday

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 1

P.M. expects liner report by Friday

PA Wellington A 34-year-old engineer was believed last evening to be the only fatality of the sunken Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov.

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, expressed "disquiet” about the sinking and said he expected to have a preliminary report by Friday. He said the question to which the inquiry would have to address itself was “Ought a vessel to hit a rock which most people should know about? "Answer — it shouldn’t,” he said. Rescue services reduced their search, saying they were now satisfied that the Russian engineer was the only serious casualty of an amazing rescue in which 738 people were safely taken off the Mikhail Lermontov before she sank in Port Gore. A rescue service spokesman said the engineer, who has not been named, was last seen below decks shortly before the ship hit rocks at Cape

Jackson. It was now believed that he went down with the ship, said the spokesman. Navy divers will decide today whether to attempt to recover his body. The police launch Lady Elizabeth and H.M.N.Z.S. Taupo will continue to patrol the waters where the liner sank.

Most of the mainly elderly Australian passengers flew back to Sydney last evening, leaving about six in Wellington Hospital recovering from shock and minor cuts and bruises.

A hospital spokesman said last evening that it was expected they would be discharged within a day or two. Speaking about the inquiry, Mr Lange said the ship’s master, Captain Vladislav Vorobyov, and

senior officers would stay in New Zealand until after it had been completed. “I think there will be

... some concerns expressed. The need for an earlier warning, complications over requests for assistance ... need to be resolved,” he said. The Soviet Embassy in Wellington was trying to arrange a charter flight to return the other crew members to the Soviet Union. \

The liner sank rapidly minutes after the last of the 409 passengers and 329 other crew members had abandoned her. She now rests 33 metres below the surface in Port Gore bay where an unsuccessful attempt was made to beach her.

Parts of the ship’s superstructure could be seen clearly under the water as streams of oil

and air escaped from the wreck, a local boat owner said on radio.

“It looks like a spring of water just bursting through the surface with tremendous power,” he said.

An armada of small vessels took part in the rescue, which Mr Lange said was “a really remarkable achievement.” After recovering from their ordeal yesterday, many of the holidaymakers praised Russian crew members who carried some of the frail passengers down rope ladders into the lifeboats. But others criticised the lack of co-ordination during the 90-minute evacuation of the heavily listing ship. “It was all fairly orderly but there was no system organised by the Russians,” one passenger said.